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It is surprising how well one recalls the time and place where a new plant 

 has been found. Whether the species be orchid or alga, lichen or moss^ 

 it matters little; the experience seems to have photographed itself indelibly 

 on our mind, and, while memory lasts, the circumstances and surroundings alF 

 arise untarnished at the evocation of the charmed name, and we live again in 

 the scenes of Nature's loveliness in which it was our good fortune to first really 

 meet and know the living thing which was then to us a new species. 



6620 Germantown Ave., Pelham, Philadelphia, Pa. 



MOSSES FROM THE CASPIAN AND BLACK SEA REGIONS 



Wm. Edw. Nicholson 



I have recently had the opportunity of going through a small collection of 

 mosses made by my friend Mr. W. J. Parsons, who was with the British forces- 

 in northern Persia and Transcaucasia in 19 17, and, as the district is not much 

 visited by botanists, a list of the species gathered may be of some interest to the 

 readers of The Bryologist. The species are for the most part of general Euro- 

 pean distribution, although there are several of a definitely Asiatic distribution^ 

 such as Barbula excurrens Broth., Tortula desertorum Broth., T. Bornmuelleri 

 Schiffn., and Leucodon immersus Lindb. The collections were made near the 

 south shores of the Caspian, in the Elburz Mountains at the back of this, and in 

 the neighborhood of Batoum on the Black Sea. I am indebted to Mr. H. N. 

 Dixon for assistance in identifying some of the less well-known species in the 

 following list : 



Ditrichum pallidum Hampe. Near Batoum. 



Fleurochaete squarrosa (Brid.) Lindb, Near the Caspian. Part of the 

 gathering is considerably more robust than any form which I have seen from the- 

 British Isles, but it otherwise agrees with the type in all essential respects, and 

 I have found a somewhat similar form in the island of Majorca. 



Barbula convoluta Hedw. Near the Caspian, 



B. excurrens Broth. Mr, Dixon refers a small gathering of a stunted plant 

 from the Elburz Mountains to this species with some hesitation. 



Crossidium squamigerum (Viv.) Jur. Elburz Mountains. 



Tortula desertorum Broth. Near the Caspian; growing with Fleurochaete- 

 squarrosa. 



T. Bornmuelleri Schiffn. Elburz Mountains. This plant is very closely" 

 allied to the last species, of which it has the appearance of being an undeveloped 

 form. Mr. Dixon expressed a doubt as to whether it is specifically distinct^ 



Grimmia campestris Burch. Elburz Mountains. 



Webera nutans Hedw. Elburz Mountains. 



Bryum atropurpureum W. & M. Near the Caspian. 



B. argenteum L. Near the Caspian. 

 Catharinaea undulata (L.) W. & M. Near Batoum. 



C. angustata Brid. Near Batoum, c. fr. 



